[MD] The Individual Level

[Steve Peterson]

Hi Platt,
[Platt]
Another reason why the intellectual level might better be called the 
individual level:

"For purposes of MOQ precision, let's say that the intellectual level 
is the same as mind. It is the collection and manipulation of symbols, 
created in the brain, that stand for patterns of experience." (LC, #25)

"The brain," a biological pattern, exists only in the individual. There 
is no such thing as a social or collective brain.

[Steve]
Pirsig explains the difference between a brain and a mind:

"The language of mental intelligence has nothing to say to the cells directly.  They don't understand it.  The language of the cells has nothing to say to the minddirectly.  It doesn't speak that language either.  They are completely
separate patterns.  At this moment, asleep, "Lila" doesn't exist any more
than a program exists when a computer is switched off.  The intelligence of
her cells had switched Lila off for the night, exactly the way a hardware
switch turns off a computer program. The language we've inherited confuses this.  We say "my" body and "your" body and "his" body and "her" body, but it isn't that way.  That's like a FORTRAN program saying, "this is my computer.""

The individual is superimposed on top of a brain. The individual does not possess the brain any more than a child posses his parents.

So it is irrelevent that there is no collective brain since the brain is hardware while the mind is software.  The same software runs on many computers and so is collective. That is a good way to think about how intellectual patterns function. Your brain is running a program that is edited by your individual experience but is in large part written by your culture.

And let's not forget, of your individual Pirsig in the same passage says:
"This Cartesian "Me," this autonomous little homunculus who sits behind our eyeballs looking out through them in order to pass judgment on the affairs of the
world, is just completely ridiculous. 

Regards,
Steve



 		
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